


I should have said it a long time ago…

by Equilibrium_29



Category: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:57:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10642215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Equilibrium_29/pseuds/Equilibrium_29
Summary: After the events of Amnesio, Pleakley is determined to not let things go on like this anymore.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, this is my first experiment in English, as I usually write in Italian, so... let me know what do you think about it. And yes, I just started the Lilo&Stitch serie and I'm already having a lot of feelings for my favourite couple (like I didn't already had feelings for them before *coff*).  
> Happy Easter to all of you!

 

**I should have said it a long time ago…**

 

Lilo’s birthday party was over. The little girl and Stitch had retired in their room, as Nani did after saying goodbye to Cobra and David. Pleakley closed softly the door of the room, his hand still on the handle, his eye fixed on it, but his mind somewhere else.

“Are you already sleeping?”.

Jumba’s laughing voice stirred him, and he laughed too shaking his head. “No, I was just thinking...”

Jumba snorted, shaking his head and climbing the stairs for his bed. “Are you not coming to bed?” he asked the other, adjusting himself on his bed in order to find a comfortable position.

Pleakley didn’t respond, his hands on the door behind him looking downward. After a few attempt to talk, he finally managed to say “I need to talk to you”.

Jumba frowned, and turned himself to face the other alien with a confused look.

“Yes? What do you want to talk about?”

Pleakley still didn’t move, nor raised his head to look at his friend. Slowly, he moved away from the door, his hands now torturing themselves with anxiety.

“I should have said it along time ago...” he started after few minutes, swallowing with difficulty. “It is… about what happened today, and… and what happened some times ago”.

Jumba, still looking at his little one-eyed one friend, decided to sit.

“You talk about experiment 303?”

“Exactly”

“So?”

Pleakley smiled. So? What was it all about? He moved himself away from the bed, looking now at the window. “It’s just… I realised...” he sighed “I was… I am sorry to have raised my voice against you when your experiment erased our memory, and-”

“If it’s just about it you don’t need to apol-”

“Just let me finish, okay?” Pleakley sighed again. The harsh tone he used upset Jumba, which was prone to reply sharply, but the sight of his friend, shaking and upset, suggested him to not say a word.

Pleakley spoke again. “And I was SO happy when I had my memory back, when I remembered you, that I… I don’t know, I just...” he gave a deep breath. “I just didn’t want to let you go, that’s it. Not anymore.”

The room was silent; Jumba, his eyes fixed on the other alien, still could not understand what his little one-eyed one was trying to say.

Pleakley laughed fretfully.

“I know it sound stupid to say it now, after all the things we went through, after all the things YOU went through...” he put one hand over his mouth. “Sometimes I still have nightmares about that time Gantu kidnapped you and you almost...” he could not finish the sentence.

Jumba climbed down from his bed, and drew himself near to his little friend, ready to comfort him. “Come on, my little one-eyed one friend, you don’t have to be upset anymore. I’m right here-”

“You don’t understand!” Pleakley stepped aside from his arms, his big eye wet. “I was so scared to loose you, you... dumb head! I was panicking, I couldn’t calm myself, I couldn’t...” he shook his head “And today- oh, today, after we got our memories back, I was so scared I really had lost you. That I had lost you forever… It’s stupid, I know, but I can’t go on like this anymore, I just can’t…” he tried to hide the sobbing, but failed. “I can’t loose you Jumba. I can’t risk to loose you again... Killed, wounded from one of your experiments, or erased from my memories… I just can’t” he said in a whisper, arms around himself, his only eye closed, trying not to cry in front of him.

Jumba stood as paralysed; he was used to the outburst of emotions of his friend, but he never saw him like this before. He didn’t know what to do, and felt irritated about it.

“It is difficult for me to say it… but I can’t, I won’t hide it anymore….” Pleakley continued. “I… I love you Jumba” he whispered.

Jumba stared at his back, unable to speak, unable to move, surprised by the sudden revelation.

“Oh, mh… well, that was... unexpected”.

Pleakley slowly turned around, his eye still wet, an unbelieving expression on his face.

“Unexpected. That’s all you can say” he sighed heavily, “I knew I shouldn’t have said it...”. He tried to surpass him and get to his bed, but Jumba stopped him grabbing one of his arms.

“Now, you stop and listen to me!” he said, harshly. “What do you think? That you can say something like that and then… act like this?” he gesticulated, irritated, and then he put a hand on his face, sighing. “I am not good with words, you know that… and you can’t pretend that I am going to tell you exactly the same words….” again, he sighed, looking away. “...but I though you were smart enough to understand it- to understand… that I feel the same for you”

Pleakley’s eye widened with astonishment. Now it was his turn to be without words.

“What do you think?” Jumba started again, chuckling. “Every time we were in danger, every time I knew it was an unsafe mission, I always tried to keep you in safe. It is my way to show I care, I thought you’d figure it out. Even more than all the others”.

Pleakley’s mouth opened, but he was still unable to say a word. Silence fell again in the room, interrupted only by the sounds of nature outside.

“I...” he tried to say, but stopped.  Jumba sighed, and let his arm go. “I am not good with this things, you know” he snorted “My marriage was a failure, and after that I had no time to build another relationship. My job comes before everything, you know it” he fixed his eyes to Pleakley’s one. “But… perhaps with time… I could improve my attitudes, my actions to show you more...”

Pleakley smile, raising his free hand to the cheek of his big friend. “You don’t need to improve anything, Jumba. I love you the way you are, with all the flaws” and then, slowly, he moved himself nearer to him, and shyly put his head on Jumba’s chest. Jumba let his arm, and instead enclosed his little friend in a warm hug. They stood there, cuddling, until Pleakley raised his head to look again at his friend.

“Do you.. do you think this could work?” he asked, hopeful.

“I don’t know, my dear one-eyed one...” he said, kissing his forehead “But as an experiment,  we won’t know until we try”

Pleakley giggled, squishing his cheek against his friend’s one, happiness filling his chest and every part of his body.

He didn’t know if their friendship could turn into something else, nor if it would last, but Pleakley was willing to try his best to make this experiment as successful as possible.


End file.
